Ya-Ya’s Tea-Board

As part of our mission to educate the public about tea, we are offering private tea-tastings for small to medium-sized groups in our teahouse. We can arrange these tea-tastings for a range of personal tastes or levels of expertise.
Generally, these tastings start with an overview of tea in its various forms, may include demonstrations of different preparation procedures (i.e. gong fu cha) and then skip to the fun part: tasting different teas.
During past tastings, many people have discovered flavours previously unknown to them and savoured the experience. Our tea-nights (or afternoons) are always a very social affair and many interesting discussions (about tea and the rest of the world) were inspired by the shared experience of a good cup of tea.

I have just received an email from a participant of one of these tea-tastings and the author has kindly agreed to share his impressions with the readers of our blog.

As a committee member of the Allied Telesis Labs social club, it can be hard to find and organise interesting and unique events. I found that unique and certainly interesting event in a tea-tasting at the Ya-Ya House of Excellent Teas. Not only was the evening of fine taste, the bonus for me was that the event was so simple to organise! All I had to do was pick a day and tell Diane and Jo the number of people attending.

15 social club members shuffled into the warmth of Ya-Ya on a cold Friday night. After some introductions, Diane and Jo began by explaining a little of the the history of tea and the Ya-Ya teahouse. Jo asked about what we knew about tea and what our experiences were with it. The range of experiences was varied but everyone had tried green tea before and a number of people had tried Darjeeling.

After some entertaining discussions, we were invited to the kitchen to see the black art of tea making… and then the green art of tea making. I’m not sure how 15 people crammed into that little kitchen but it was fun to watch the water preparation, smell the leaves and see the timing techniques. Lots of questions were asked, about things such as how to store leaves, whether you can reuse them, suitable tea making gear and how long to steep teas.
We left the kitchen (not because we couldn’t stand the heat) and were seated at one large table where we were served three different teas from bottomless teapots. More discussion about tea ensued, but because of the relaxed atmosphere conversation turned to life in general and we lost track of time. Time is such a critical aspect in the preparation of tea, but when the brew itself is in hand with good company, those concerns melt away!

At about 10 PM we decided it was time to leave, some people bought tea (or claim the prize they’d won earlier) and chatted a little longer. Only one question was left unanswered. The jury is apparently out on whether, in the case of tea that is best steeped at less than 100 degrees, the water should be boiled and cooled, or bought up to temperature and not boiled. Perhaps a blog entry some day will promote lively comments on the teahouse website!

Thanks Diane and Jo for your patience and for presenting us a thoughtful, interactive, warming and very social event.

If you are interested in tea and think you could motivate a few friends to share an exciting evening sipping some of the world’s best teas, give us a ring at 365 2802 or send us an email.
We’ll be happy to accommodate your needs!